Woman tourist, 23, found decapitated after going missing while hiking through the Himalayas in Nepal

The desperate search for 23-year-old Belgian hiker missing in Nepal for ten days came to a gruesome end when her decapitated body was found in the Himalayan Mountains.

Debbie Maveau was badly decomposed, but investigators couldn't miss the sight of her head 13 inches away from her body, discovered the near a hiking trail in Langtang National Park, Agence France-Presse reports.

She is only the latest in a string of assaults and disappearances of young women hiking alone in the rugged mountains along the Chinese border.

Mystery: Debbie Maveau, 23, was neither robbed nor raped before she was brutally murdered, according to authorities

The violence led the US State Department to issue a travel warning earlier this year and advise Americans not to hike the rugged terrain alone.

Nepalese police say they are investigating Maveau's death as a murder, but that few people are cooperating.